My second internship program was planned almost one year before. But the place where I’m going to get it was unexpected again. I was planning to go Brazil. Yeah, it was pretty good idea but later in the middle of the processes nice Polish breeze blew me up. I started in the same way to search for Internship Programs in Poland. For me the city didn’t matter because I haven’t been to any of them and I applied for 3 cities.

Approximately after 2 days I got an answer from Local Committee “Lodz” that I should have an interview. And in the interview day the results were out and I was accepted! After this news I felt a bit strange that how it’ll be and how I’m going to spend my internship in Poland but in the same way I was so happy because it would be my first visit to the Middle Europe. It was quite good news that after some days I got news that one of my team members is also accepted to the same project called “Inspirator2013”. Actually to many people form Azerbaijan was accepted to Poland for this summer but in our city Lodz = [Luch] was just me and my friend.

We arrived to the capital of Poland on 12th July evening and we got info that we should buy train ticket from Warsaw to Lodz. We spend about 7 hours at “Dworzec Warszawa Centralna” (The main train station) and the train took 2 and half hours to Lodz. Our Organizing Committee President met us in the very rainy and cloudy day and we went to our first house where we are going to leave. I met my intern friends from Malaysia, Kyrgyzstan, Hungary, Turkey, Brazil and Taiwan. We had very great welcome party for all of exchange participants. It was strange for me to stay at the pub till 23:30 and then live for club but generally it was great welcoming. On the Weekend we had our preparation seminars at University of Lodz by former Local Committee President of AIESEC Lodz. The training was consist of full preparations and was looking like TTT (Train the Trainer).

Our first working place was Orphanage, mostly with the children 15 years plus. We started from get to know each other and internal games and later it lasted with cultural presentations. It was quite interesting not only for children but also for us as well. During a day we worked about 4 hours and we had lunch together with these children. Of course in the evenings we had enough time to walk, to see, to shopping, to eat and to party. Our lovely place in this city was the longest street in the Europe: Pietrowska and if I’m not mistaken the biggest shopping mall in Europe: Manufaktura. The first place which I wrote was known by beautiful architects, restaurants, pubs and clubs. Almost everyday we visited this place. Manufaktura in the ancient times was just a fabric but know it was such a big shopping mall that you can easily get tired while walking there. The main stuff which liked was its color. Because the red buildings always reminded me Poland and now it was my pleasure just to have a look.

The Second working place was at Cultural house. It was totally different from the first place. The atmosphere was such cute you just wanted to spend more time. We continued the presentations there and of course some AIESEC roll-calls. I wore my national clothe and showed them a little part from Azerbaijani national dance “Naz Eleme”. In the same day we organized very nice public Cultural event called “Global Village”. Together with my intern friends we prepared our national stuff to show the people. It was the first time in my life that I decided to cook “Plov” together with my friend Ramil. It took quite a long time to cook it and while preparing this Plov we were just laughing out loud. The funniest part of that was the souse. Because I was in a hurry while having a shopping and I couldn’t find any beef meet, I just bought pork! So yeah, the guys from Islamic country cooked the national meal with pork what can be better J

After this amazing festival we – Azeri guys, decided to spend our weekend in the city Rzeszow=[Jeshuw] where some of our Azeri friends were currently having their internships. It was my pleasure to meet them to talk a lot in Azerbaijani language and share our impressions about Poland. The funny thing was that sometimes we were arguing about whose city the best is. We were adapted to our Polish houses and cities already which were quite nice to feel that. Rzeszow was quite small and nice city. I discovered that even in small cities in Poland have very nice shopping malls. In the evening we stopped at the Market Square for a glass of beer. The second day was even much better. We saw 2 more cities Polanchi and Solina. There was a lake where you can swim and have sunbath. About 4-5 hours we spent there and later we went to Solina. This place was also so nice and especially for tourists. There you could find many national stuff and of course a nice view to the lake. On the way to Rzeszow there was very nice small café where many kinds of sweets, cakes, ice-creams, tea-coffee and so on you can buy. And generally I just enjoyed these days. Of course it could not be such enjoyable without my friends. In the evening we said goodbye to each other and left Rzeszow for Lodz.

As soon as we arrived to Lodz we started to pack and leave for next place where we’ll live and work. 4 of us should go to another town for 5 days but the rest should stay in the same city. Me, the girls from Malaysia and Kyrgyzstan and the guy from Nigeria left for Belchatow. It was a small town but our working place actually was even far from this town. Of course first we had poker face. But later we saw the food which they gave us, we turned to each other and told: “Guys just some days not so bad and meal is nice and for free actually!” It was so funny that we couldn’t keep laughing. In this working place we decided to deliver English lessons and Cultural presentations as well. Some of the local guys were so polite and they wanted to take care of us. They invited to walk around several times and the place was “Dabrowa Rusiecka”. It was kind of village but there was a lot of stuff shocking me in a good way. For example, the houses in the village were so pretty that you couldn’t keep looking at this. On each door to the garden was written that “Attention, angry dog inside” which was so good and nice to see kind of warning. Also the fences between gardens with neighbors were so small that everyone can enjoy the flowers in each others yards. It was the first time in my life that I got on bike and one of the locals ride me. Generally even if this place sometimes seemed a bit boring but always you find something to enjoy. Actually this place was the best option to have a rest far from city and of course save moneyJ.

When we back to the city it was weekend and there was a nice surprise that my AIESECer friend who was having his internship program in Lithuania decided to visit us. Together with 8 Exchange Participants of our project, my friend and incoming Global Community Development Program coordinator went to the most beautiful city of Poland, Krakow. It was very nice trip by train about 3 and half hour. We arrived early in morning and started to search our hostel by map. Our hostel was located exactly in the city center, next to Market Square. First impressions about Krakow: “Oh my God each building is nice”, “Oh my God how many tourists here are!”, “How many people sing live songs here”! After discovering the Market Square we switched to the riverside and then to the famous castle. In Krakow I knew that this city’s emblem is Dragon and on each souvenir you could see the Dragon picture. Of course for eating something we went to the mall because we didn’t prefer Polish national meal. The most known national meal was “pierogi” which I didn’t like. The most eatable and famous meal was doner-kebab. However this is a Turkish meal but here it was tastier with more cabbage and with more choices. It was really funny that it has become my favorite meal in Poland. Later we went for a night walk, which was just awesome near riverside. Next day was our departure day and we planned to visit famous Jewish District here. It was quite unique and interesting. And finally after this walking we got in our train. This way to back our city was so interesting because I felt homesick. Almost it was middle of my internship in Poland, I was sitting alone and there was quite nice atmosphere to miss each my friend and my family members. But I knew that it’s normal to feel such because I felt it in my previous internship as well. There was not so much time to spend time for missing someone because the next day was Monday which meant to go to our new working place.

In Morning we got quite early because this place was fucking far from our dormitory almost another city. We should take 2 trams and one bus in order to get there. I was quite angry to organizer that what kind of place they are sending us and I didn’t want to spend such long time on our way. But we reached there I was so pleased because the crew of this orphanage was very happy to meet us in their place. Even if they didn’t know English, they were trying to search for proper words in dictionary. As volunteers from different countries it was our pleasure to see such attitude toward us. The work itself was quite interesting with this staff. After work we got home very late but happy. The whole week was enjoyable we didn’t even felt how the time has passed. We saw the real hospitality even on the way to this place. The driver took us for free which was totally surprising. Because sometimes in the city when we asked someone to take our picture they said no or even didn’t tried to understand us. The last presentation day in our working place was so unforgettable. Imagine that when we started to leave for our home the children began to cry. They were quite adult to understand that they’ll never see us again. We got a lot of thankful words and also the official thanks written on paper by administration of this Orphanage. They were just thankful that we came for these children from such far countries and tried to show them how the world colorful is in real. And that was the end of this week.

In the same time working in different places we also had many additional joyful times such as disco, karaoke, swimming and so on. On each Thursday we went for Riff Raff club for singing karaoke. It was totally different from the karaoke clubs that I’ve been to Baku. Here was quite nice stage and singing was for free. As a karaoke fan it has become my favorite place. Everything comparing with Azerbaijan was cheap here besides petrol which was affected to public transportation as well. The rest stuff was such cheap that you couldn’t stop spending money. The one the nicest thing was that if you want to be in nature you don’t need to waste a lot time. By bus 15-20 minutes was enough to be in green.

And the next destination as a tourist was Prague, Czech Republic. We had just one day! We arrived in early morning at 4:30 to the Florence Bus Station and started to discover all of city with map. The city center was not so big and we could just walk. It was awesome even to walk in single streets. CharlesBridge, Dancing House, Cathedral and so on was incredibly beautiful. Before going there I’ve heard that the biggest night club in middle Europe is in Prague. So we went there and enjoyed a lot. The club was consists of 5 floors and in each floor there’s one type of music. It means that if you don’t like music you can just change the floor. We left the club at 3 am and it was the end of our Czech trip! There was just a week left to the end of our project and there was good bye mood. On Wednesday we had farewell party and get our confirmation letters from AIESEC Lodz. On Friday almost everyone left for their own plans, some of them went home we went to Germany, Berlin as a last place that we planned to visit. The First impressions about Berlin were that here’s big and expensive. Later I’ve found this city so livable and beautiful. It was such big that by walking you can just die. So I and my friend rented bikes. In two days we ride a lot, saw a lot and took many pictures. We have been to the one of the most famous zoo in the world. It took 3 hours to walk there and even we couldn’t finish it. The parks, buildings were great as well. The last day in Berlin I just wanted to go back home. I was tired of traveling, spending money and generally wanted to go back to Poland for saying goodbye.

And yeah, after one day spending in Lodz we went for WarsawChopinInternationalAirport and said goodbye to adventures, people, and to the summer. I saw a lot and I did a lot. Got to used to Europe, punctuality, western culture, open-mind ness, freedom. The word “Freedom” could be seen in Germany totally, where is a lot of people and each are from different nations speaking in different languages. You can wear and act what you want.

There’ll be a lot stuff that I’m gonna miss and talk between my friends. However I’m going to study in my last year of Bachelor but I don’t say goodbye to AIESEC Internship Programs.